Wingless Book Series (book 1)

by Holly Hood

  Vanessa’s car came to a slow crawl; I hurried to my feet running to her car. I tapped on the window, opening the door, jumping in.

  “Dude, why are you on the side of the road?” she said, looking confused.

  “It was easier to wait here. You would have had to go through the gates and you need a sticker or something I think,” I said, throwing my jacket in the backseat.

  “Okay, but I still think it’s kind of strange. You look like you escaped from prison or something,” she said, looking me over.

  “It’s fine. Will you just talk about something else now?” I said, turning up the radio.

  We made our way into the old school parking lot. It was easier to park and walk to where the party was. And the party was at a sorority house-a sorority that had been familiar with when I was at school. They had tried to get me to join, but it just wasn’t my thing. I knew most of the girls and, although they were all cool and nice, I never became anything more than a casual friend of theirs.

  Vanessa fluffed her hair, blowing her bangs out of her face in a hurry.

  “Do I look alright?” she asked.

  “You look gorgeous,” I said, not caring to primp or anything. I did not intend to catch anyone’s eye. Now that I was with Evan, it was so much easier to feel comfortable around the opposite sex.

  Being at a party with Vanessa consisted of sticking with her the whole night, not chatting with anyone in particular, and occasionally sneaking around to score some liquor out of her flask.

  “Did you see Josh?” she oozed, letting out a big sigh as we leaned against the wall. There were hundreds of people packed into the two level old Victorian style home. The music so loud I could barely hear my own thoughts let alone much of what Vanessa was saying.

  “I think I did, not sure. There are too many people here,” I said, holding my breath as someone passed by me.

  My head was starting to pound, and it all was becoming less and less a good idea.

  “Here,” Vanessa said, jabbing the flask into my side.

  “I can’t,” I said.

  She didn’t hear me, she kept jabbing. I rolled my eyes taking a long swig, the harsh taste of vodka hitting the back of my throat. My eyes watered, I gave it back to her. She smiled, looking pleased that the old Eve was back.

  “Hey, let’s go out on the porch, it’s getting a little hot in here,” she said, pulling her sweater off, revealing a tank top that barely covered her midriff.

  It was a totally different look than what she usually wore. And there was nothing wrong with it, Vanessa had a killer body, but it was so not her. I guess if I had been around, I would have known what she had up her sleeve, and what the whole reason for this was.

  Coming out onto the porch all eyes were on the two of us. There were no girls outside besides us. This was just my luck, having to fend off an attack, I thought. I grabbed the flask out of her hand, downing what was left.

  “You lush!” she slurred, starting to do a stripper pole type of dance to the bad club music blaring.

  “Nessa! Will you chill out?” I said, trying to get out of the view of the guys gawking.

  “Come dance with me Eve!” she yelled, whipping her hair around.

  I started laughing, the music catching me off guard. I did a little jig holding onto the railing, we both laughed. I was never one for dance.

  “Yeah, Eve, dance with her,” a tall guy said, coming over to me.

  He was lanky with dark hair, his bangs dangling in his face like Johnny Depp or something, which he definitely was not at all.

  “I’m alright,” I said, crossing my arms.

  “You don’t remember me?” he asked, grinning.

  “No, I don’t. Sorry,” I said, looking away.

  “I’m Chad. Your brother, Gray’s friend,” he said, leaning against the railing himself.

  Suddenly I remembered him. He was the friend that was always playing baseball with Gray. It seemed like forever since I had seen Gray.

  “Oh, okay,” I said, nodding my head, trying to look like I cared.

  “Yeah, your brother said you moved out with some kid of a mob boss,” he said laughing.

  “Weird,” I said, shrugging.

  “Well did you?” he asked me again.

  “I moved out,” I offered, flipping my hair. Vanessa was dancing with this Josh character now.

  “He said you don’t even talk to anyone anymore,” he said seriously.

  “Not really, no. I will eventually. You can tell him that if you want,” I said, feeling sad.

  “Aren’t you a little young to be moving in with people older than your brother?” he asked.

  “Isn’t life too short to worry about when it’s okay to do something or not do something?” I asked harshly.

  “I guess you’re half right,” he said, chugging his beer.

  “Half, huh?” I looked around, not seeing Vanessa anymore.

  “Everything always seems better when you’re young and rebelling. When you’re older you will realize what was a mistake and what was worth it,” he shrugged. “Have a good night, Eve. I’ll tell the fam hello for you.” He waved, heading into the mass crowd inside.

  I finally decided that Vanessa was nowhere to be found. This really was starting to make me wonder. I headed off the porch surveying the best I could over the crowd for her and her drunken dancing.

  “Vanessa!” I yelled.

  It was pointless. I pulled out my phone dialing her number. There was no answer. She probably wouldn’t have even heard it if she was still there. I stumbled over some garbage on the lawn feeling a little tipsy myself.

  “This is just great. I have no ride and she’s nowhere to be found,” I griped out loud, making my way to the parking lot to find the car.

  The car was gone. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The car was gone, no longer there. And it wasn’t like Vanessa to ditch me, ever. My stomach slowly felt sicker and sicker. I hunched over, almost hyperventilating.

  “Are you okay?” Chad asked, putting his hand on the small of my back.

  I flinched, standing up straight.

  “Have you seen my friend?” I asked, breathless and queasy.

  Chad took a couple side glances as if he was trying his hardest to look for her.

  “No, I can’t say that I have. Was she your ride home?”

  “Yeah, she was. But it’s not just that I’m worried about her,” I said, heading back up the steps.

  Chad followed behind me. It gave me the creeps and was starting to get on my nerves at how stalker-like he was becoming.

  “I can go check the bathrooms,” he offered.

  “No. There’s no point, her car is gone,” I snapped.

  I held my head in my hands feeling like the worst had happened. Any moment now Evan would be realizing I wasn’t home, and I had just made things so much worse.

  I ran back off the porch taking off through the parking lot. Chad, realizing what I was doing, ran after me.

  “I can give you a ride. Where are you staying?” he asked half drunk.

  “No. I need to find her. It’s not like Nessa to just leave.”

  “I can take you home. Maybe Gray could help,” he said.

  “No!” I yelled, feeling sicker now, knowing that my family would hear about this.

  Chad threw his hands up. “Alright, alright,” he said. His friends started hooting and hollering from the porch at him.

  I started walking down the street trying to see if I would find Nessa anywhere. Maybe she parked the car somewhere else, anything. I knew it wasn’t like her and this was starting to worry me. She was wasted, and now I felt even worse knowing that I let her out of my sight when she was drunk. My phone buzzed in my pocket, my hand snatched it out in a flash hoping it was Nessa.

  “Eve?” Ari’s voice asked.

  “Huh?” I said, feeling as if I was off in la la land.

  “What are you doing?” Ari asked with a little humor to her voice. A humor that I found sickening right now
.

  “Ari, I don’t know. I messed up. Please don’t tell Evan,” I cried.

  “What are you talking about?” Ari whispered.

  “I went with Nessa and she left me. I can’t find her. I want to come home, but I need to make sure she’s alright.” Tears ran down my cheeks warming my face in the chilly night air.

  I clutched the phone, slowly walking down the street. Why did it matter if I was out in the dark alone? It didn’t. I was totally and utterly in a bad situation.

  Ari paused for a long while. I could tell she was trying to keep this under wraps, which meant Kenny or someone was around who could hear.

  “I can come get you if you want me to,” she whispered.

  “No. I need to find her. I mean, yes, but let me call you when I find her. Can you make something up for me? Where is Evan?” I blurted out, bawling like a baby.

  “He’s not home. I just looked, the truck’s still gone. Mark isn’t home, either. I can see his house from here,” she said quickly.

  “What? That doesn’t even make sense. He said he was doing yard work with Mark,” I said through sobs.

  “I don’t know, maybe they had to go somewhere. They’re not here, so maybe you can make it back in time,” she whispered.

  “I don’t know. Let me call you back.” I hung up, jogging around the corner, surveying every car for Nessa’s with no luck at all.

  “Nessa!” I screamed.

  It was no use. Wherever she was, it was far away from here. And it made no sense.

  I walked back to the sorority house, sitting on the porch steps to try calling her phone one more time. Something sparkled in the grass. I got up to check it out and gasped as I realized it was her cell phone practically underneath the bush by the trees. Her stylish pink cell phone, the one she had saved for months to get. She didn’t care if it took months to get it and had already gone out of style by the time she got it, but she was still proud to have a high tech gadget to call her own.

  I knew Vanessa wouldn’t ever leave me alone, I knew this. Something wasn’t right, and I was feeling sicker and sicker thinking she was drinking and possibly got in a car with a strange college guy and took off. But it made some sense to think she would. She was dancing with Josh and she’d had the hugest crush him, on stoner Josh- with the tats and facial piercings, for months and months. He was the typical punk to me. He was in a band, enjoyed getting high and hanging out to skateboard, he cussed like a sailor and drank like one too, but to Vanessa, he was a rebel and he was hot.

  I got off the porch, deciding to do one more sweep of the area before I called Ari back so that she could come pick me up. Walking down the sidewalk there was a great deal of noise and yelling going on. It was a lost cause trying to make sense of anything going on with so many people partying.

  I heard yelling and shouting from so many directions and horns honking all over the place. There were about ten to fifteen people running up and down the street shouting as well. Sometimes, when people got drunk, they acted like morons.

  I pulled my cell phone back out, fumbling around for Ari’s number, and in a flash, was knocked to the ground. I gasped, bumping my head on the concrete. I guess I would learn the next time to watch where I was walking while on a cell phone.

  Someone pulled me up from behind; I felt a little fuzzy gripping their arm as I steadied myself. When I could stand on my own, I looked up in shock at who I was looking at.

  “Evan?” I half yelled and cried.

  Evan’s face went white. He grabbed my arm to keep me stable, because yet again my legs were ready to buckle.

  “Eve, what are you doing here!” he yelled at me amidst all the commotion.

  “Vanessa, she invited me to the party. I told you that-“ I said, stopping in midsentence. There was no point trying to cover up a lie with another lie.

  Evan was so upset his face turned bright red. “Let’s get out of here!” he yelled through the noise, grabbing my arm and pulling me along.

  I held onto the arm of his jacket to keep steady as we sped through the crowd. We made it to his truck in a flash. He propped me against the door, fumbling his keys to get into the car.

  “Here, I got it,” Mark said, appearing next to me.

  I jumped, startled he was there. Mark held onto my arm, he didn’t even smile or make eye contact. Nothing about him was happy anymore. Evan unlocked his door and mine, letting out a huge frustrated sigh. Mark followed me to the passenger side door.

  “What are we doing?” Mark said to Evan. Evan shook his head.

  I climbed in the truck just wanting to sit. This all was going so wrong.

  Evan and Mark stood outside the truck discussing something I wasn’t sure of. I wasn’t even trying to overhear. For all I knew they were speaking of my demise. Was this something you could be killed over? And how did Evan and Mark find me, I asked myself. My brain was not working, I had no explanation.

  “You ready?” Mark asked Evan, climbing into the truck beside me. Evan was still outside not looking like he wanted to get in the truck anytime soon.

  “Can I get out and talk to him?” I asked Mark.

  “No. No, no, just stay put,” he said in a stern yet amused tone.

  “I got to do something. I never seen him like this,” I said, starting to cry.

  A bunch of people came screaming and running past the car, chaos was still all around us.

  Mark turned my face to look at him, wiping my tears.

  “I’m telling you, now is not the time. Just calm down and keep quiet right now,” he said, wiping my face again and then pulling a tissue out of his pocket.

  “Thanks,” I said, sobbing all over again.

  “Evan, let’s get going. Let’s get her home,” Mark said, pounding his fist on the outside of the truck door.

  Evan finally made his way to the door opening it and slowly getting in. I caught his glance. It was more troubled than angry at this point. More people were walking all over the street.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered to him.

  He didn’t say a thing, just put the truck in drive and slowly moved forward.

  Mark rolled his window down, watching the crowds of people.

  “I’m sorry you found me like this, Evan, but I got to tell you. Vanessa is gone. I can’t find her. I was trying to make sure she was alright,” I said, pleading with him to stop.

  I couldn’t breathe as I cried, thinking about Vanessa still out there somewhere.

  “Call her,” Mark offered.

  I pulled her cell from my pocket. Mark sighed, looking out the window nothing else to say.

  “I need to know she is alright!” I screamed at Evan who, at this point, still wasn’t talking. Mark looked at me, alarmed.

  We pulled onto the road driving at a snail’s pace. Finally at the corner, I was blinded by flashing lights and police sirens. Fire trucks were even lined on the street. All sorts of crowds were gathered.

  I was confused as to all the commotion and yelling that still was going on this far away from the house. Mark grabbed my arm, which I found even odder because I was sitting.

  “What?” I said, giving him a dirty look. Evan put his arm across my legs as well.

  “Eve,” Mark said.

  “What are you guys doing? I’m fine. Take your hands off me!” I shrieked, not knowing what either one of them was trying to do to me.

  “Eve!” Evan yelled in my face, his nose practically touching mine. Mark still held tight to my arm.

  “What?” I asked him.

  His face was stone, no expression there that I could read. My hearing felt like it was slowly fading away and my sight as well. I felt as if I was going to pass out.

  Evan didn’t say anything that I could make out, he kept his arm across my lap as well as Mark as we crept further down the street.

  Cops were waving traffic through. We stopped as the next cars passed and I caught the very end of Vanessa’s car sticking out from behind the fire truck that was parked on the s
treet.

  “There! Right there!” I yelled, trying to get up.

  I knew I had a chance to get out and see. More than likely she was caught in the traffic as well.

  “Eve, sit still!” Evan yelled.

  “That’s her car right there! Turn left!” I yelled at him, scratching at his arm that was pinning me in place.